Passenger Focus responds to Southeastern franchise news

Listen to this article

Tunde Olatunji, Passenger Focus manager, said: “Today’s announcement confirming the two year extension of Southeastern’s franchise will be received with mixed feelings by those passengers who have seen a deterioration in performance, sharp fare increases and little or no compensation for the delays.

“However, the silver lining for passengers who have felt aggrieved about the failure to get compensation last year is that the franchise extension has now included a consultation on changing the compensation arrangement to a system known as ‘delay repay’, where passengers are entitled to compensation for every journey delayed by more than 30 minutes.

“This is something we had argued for in the original contract, so we are pleased that it has finally been accepted. It should mean that passengers will be able to apply for compensation immediately rather than having to wait to see whether Southeastern’s year performance has breached the threshold for awarding compensation.”

“The extension of the high speed to Maidstone West is also welcome news. Moving forward we expect to see Southeastern’s commitment to improving performance and passenger information.’’

 

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Rail News

Andrew Haines looks back on five years of CP6

As Control Period 6 (CP6) comes to a close on 31 March, Network Rail is taking a look back...

More like this...